|
Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > 1400 to 1600 > Renaissance art
The interpretation of paintings--especially of Old Masters--has
occupied art historians for generations. Rarely, however, have they
attempted to place the subject of their research in its wider
political and international context. So what can we learn, for
example, about the state of 15th-century Europe by studying some of
the great paintings of the time?
In this innovative work, Abolala Soudavar examines seven paintings
by some of the great masters of the 15th century and demonstrates
how we can better understand the state of international relations
and the political rivalries of the time by decoding the figures,
their postures and gestures, the background scenes, the
compositions and much else in these paintings. The result offers
some extraordinary solutions to long-standing puzzles, which
illuminate both the paintings and our understanding of the period.
By decoding these paintings, Soudavar has altered the landscape of
our understanding of 15th-century Art and opened the door to a kind
of political and historical analysis of high culture which will
affect how we study the history of art in future generations.
This volume narrates the life of Raphael, 500 years after his
death, and presents the various aspects of the unique artistic
experience of the genius. Particular significance is given to
Raphael's management of his studio: more than any other artist, in
fact, he was able to act as an entrepreneur, organizing and
directing an excellent group of collaborators, which could be
expanded or contracted in response to requirements. It was a modern
organization which was ahead of its time in that it included a kind
of marketing. His inventions and ideas were spread thanks to
engravings and woodcuts. The life and the main masterpieces of one
of the finest artist of the whole history of art. For the first
time in a title about Raffaello the reader will find a final
chapter dedicated to his carvings, which made him the first artist
entrepreneur of history.
This book is a reconsideration of the practice of whitewashing
church interiors during the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. It is the first detailed study of its
kind which challenges the view that whitewash was always only a
`cheap coat of paint'. Victoria George pulls together several
histories: of the colour white from the biblical period to the
present, and ideas about the colour white in philosophy, theology,
art, and architecture from antiquity to the present. She links them
to case studies of the ways in which reformers Huldrych Zwingli and
John Calvin thought about colour in a careful analysis of the role
of colour-thinking in their theological writings. The social
meanings embodied in the word,`whitewash' as it entered the printed
media in the 17th century is explored as part of a chapter on the
history of whitewashing itself. The long-term symbolic and
aesthetic implications of the practice of whitewashing are examined
in the larger context of material culture; in terms of their value
as a metaphor, for both the Reformed Protestant and the Catholic in
opposition to them; and for the uses to which whitewash has been
put over time. George proposes that the practice was not only
visually transformative but held importance for religious
aesthetics as an agent of change, and for an aesthetics of
minimalism generally, especially evident in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries. Victoria George received an MFA from the
Royal College of Art (London), an MA from The Architectural
Association, and a Ph.D. from Cambridge. She has taught religion
and the arts at the University of Richmond in Virginia.
|
Reading Vasari
(Hardcover)
Anne B. Barriault, Andrew Ladis, Norman E. Land, Jeryldene M. Wood
|
R2,231
Discovery Miles 22 310
|
Ships in 12 - 17 working days
|
|
This book explores the rich literary character and rhetorical
strategies of Giorgio Vasari's "Lives of the Most Eminent Painters,
Sculptors, and Architects," which tells the story of Italian art as
it unfolded from its beginnings in the Trecento to its pinnacle in
Michelangelo and the art of the Academy in the mid-sixteenth
century. The contributors propose ways to read Vasari's text in the
light of recent disputes over what is fact, fiction, or biography,
and who may have read Vasari's editions when they were first
published. The essays isolate and analyze select threads from
Vasari's luxurious textual tapestry: these range from architecture,
cosmology and philosophy to biography, comedy, elegy and
travelogue. In doing so, the authors have built upon ideas proposed
in recent studies of the "Lives," including important works by Paul
Barolsky and Patricia Rubin.
At the end of his long, prolific life, Titian was rumored to paint
directly on the canvas with his bare hands. He would slide his
fingers across bright ridges of oil paint, loosening the colors,
blending, blurring, and then bringing them together again. With
nothing more than the stroke of a thumb or the flick of a nail,
Titian's touch brought the world to life. The clinking of glasses,
the clanging of swords, and the cry of a woman's grief. The
sensation of hair brushing up against naked flesh, the sudden blush
of unplanned desire, and the dry taste of fear in a lost, shadowy
place. Titian's art, Maria H. Loh argues in this exquisitely
illustrated book, was and is a synesthetic experience. To see is at
once to hear, to smell, to taste, and to touch. But while Titian
was fully attached to the world around him, he also held the
universe in his hands. Like a magician, he could conjure
appearances out of thin air. Like a philosopher, his exploration
into the very nature of things channelled and challenged the
controversial ideas of his day. But as a painter, he created the
world anew. Dogs, babies, rubies, and pearls. Falcons, flowers,
gloves, and stone. Shepherds, mothers, gods, and men. Paint,
canvas, blood, sweat, and tears. In a series of close visual
investigations, Loh guides us through the lush, vibrant world of
Titian's touch.
Robert Payne, author of some of the most widely read biographies of
our day, now brings us a new and fascinating portrayal of Leonardo
da Vinci. This is the third volume of our recently released Robert
Payne Library series.
Renaissance art history is traditionally identified with Italian
centers of production, and Florence in particular. Instead, this
book explores the dynamic interchange between European artistic
centers and artists and the trade in works of art. It also
considers the impact of differing locations on art and artists and
some of the economic, political, and cultural factors crucial to
the emergence of an artistic center.
During c.1420-1520, no city or court could succeed in isolation and
so artists operated within a network of interests and local and
international identities. The case studies presented in this book
portray the Renaissance as an exciting international phenomenon,
with cities and courts inextricably bound together in a web of
economic and political interests.
|
You may like...
Hot Water
Nadine Dirks
Paperback
R265
R207
Discovery Miles 2 070
|